From the course: Learning MicroStation CONNECT Edition for General Users

Pattern areas - MicroStation Tutorial

From the course: Learning MicroStation CONNECT Edition for General Users

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Pattern areas

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- [Instructor] One of the fundamental operations in nearly all design work are hatches, crosshatches and patterns. In this lesson, we will learn how these important graphic elements are constructed in MicroStation. There are three tools you can use to hatch or pattern areas. Hatch area is used to pattern an area with parallel lines in one direction. Crosshatch area is used to pattern an area with parallel lines in two directions. Pattern area is used to pattern an area using a cell as the repeating pattern. You can find these tools in the annotate tab in the patterns ribbon group. Continuing and annotating designs dot DGN, open the hatch and pattern model. To begin, let's hatch the first circle. Select the hatch area tool and set the following. Method, element. Spacing, two. Annotation scale, enabled. Angle, 45 degrees. Drop pattern, disabled. Associative boundary, enabled. And snappable, disabled. Select a circle and accept with the data plan. Here's a hint, the point where you accept the hatch also defines the pattern intersection point. That's a point through which a hatch line intercepts or where a pattern cell starts. This allows you to easily align different hatched patterns by snapping to the same point on each element. For the next exercise, we'll try the union method. We will be working with the block and two circles. First, select the union method. Next, select two of the three closed elements with the data point. To select the third element, hold down the control key while selecting it. This works for multiple elements. Following the prompt, accept with a data point. Another method for doing multiples elements selections is to use elements selection to identify them, then hatch with the union method. For the next exercise, let's try out the crosshatch area tool. It operates in the same way hatch does, except it patterns the element with, you guessed it, a crosshatch. In the third figure, the block contains three circles. The intent here is to create voids in the crosshatch that match these circles. Select the crosshatch area tool, and choose the difference method. In the tool settings, lock in the spacing and angle of the crosshatch pattern. This is done by ensuring both padlock icons are closed. Note how the values of the crosshatching is at right angles to one another. First, select the block. Then, select the first circle to subtract from the block and with the control key pressed, select the other two circles. Accept with a data point. Next, we'll learn how to pattern an area using a cell. Select the cell pattern tool with the flood method. In the tool settings, ensure that the pattern definition is set to from cell. To use this option, we have to first attach a cell library. Click the browse cells button next to the pattern field. The cell library dialog appears. In the cell library dialogue, select file menu, attach file. Navigate to the \MSBasics\Standards\Cell folder in the course dataset, and open the cell library geompa.cell. In the cell list, select the cell that you want to use for patterning, for example, GEOM12. Click the pattern button to make the cell the active pattern cell. Now that you have found and set the pattern cell, you can continue with the pattern area tool. In the tool settings of the pattern area tool, set the remaining settings, scale, one. Annotation, enabled. Row spacing, zero. Column spacing, zero. Angle, zero. Associative boundary, enabled. Following the prompt, data point inside the area that you want to pattern. Be sure you do not click on the elements boundary when using the flood method. This is entirely different from the selection method you've used to this point. The resulting area is highlighted. Accept with a data point. To pattern the first figure in the bottom row, you can use the intersection or the flood method. For the second figure, you can only use the flood method, as this area is surrounded by lines and is not a closed element. In the third figure, the block and the text should be kept free from the patterning. Select pattern area with the flood method, expand the tool settings, and set the following. Locate interior shapes, enabled. Locate interior text, enabled. Texts margin, 0.4. Next, click within the area and accept the data point. The result is a pattern that floods the area defined by the four lines. In the final figure, the bottom half of the circle needs to be patterned. The problem is, the two blue lines are in the way. There's a simple solution to this. We need to use the elements selection tool to specifically identify the circle and line needed for the flood operation, ignoring the two blue lines. With the element selection tool, first select the circle and the red line. Select the pattern area with the flood method. Now, click on the bottom half of the circle and accept with a data point. Now the entire lower half of the circle's patterned, disregarding the blue lines. Clear the selection set. Hint, when using the flood method, selecting elements in advance gives you control over which elements MicroStation will use to define the area. In this lesson, you learned hatch area, crosshatch area and pattern area.

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